Despair and Hope at Odds

I like to think of myself as someone who understands politics. Or at least I thought I did. I have a long history with politics — from it being all consuming (that wasn’t healthy), to hating it (not healthy either), to making some sort of peace with it, to trying to ignore it, to being concerned about the people in it. It seems that for many people politics has taken the place that religion once had in their lives. Religion offers a sense of identity, meaning, purpose. There are origin stories and sacredness. There is a call to follow. There are things that are taught and learned. There are ways to see people. There are sins and blessings.

But for several years now so much of these very things seems to be played out in the realm of politics — usually not in a healthy way.

I’m also a student of history. And because of that, I also recognize that what I’m observing isn’t anything new. Politics has used and abused religion probably more often than not. Religion and politics are more alike than we often like to admit. I’m fond of saying that religion and politics are really the same thing — a study of people and a presentation of a possible future, grounded in identity, belonging, and meaning making. This seems to be just another time in history in which politics is using religion’s core for its own purposes. I don’t mean that in terms of institutions either. I’m talking about something much deeper — power, control, ideas, etc. Religion is unhealthy and destructive when its primary concerns are about order and control and power.